But can the Stupid Party collect the Democrat Party’s vig?

So “Light Bulb” Upton’s “Keep Your Health Plan Act” passed in the House. A silly endeavor, since the Unicorn King has already announced he’ll veto if it manages to make it to his desk, which Dingy Harry will never allow. Same with the electorally-panicked Sen. Landrieu’s pending bill. (FWIW, see Ace’s piece comparing the two.) Neither has a chance of making it to the Unicorn King’s desk.

It’s become ‘Reality TV’ at this point, the way these folks do the people’s business. The only difference is the paparazzi sell their product to CSPAN and NBC instead of TMZ.

At least Upton and Landrieu are trying to “fix” this catastrophic piece of political chicanery masquerading as policy through the legislative process. The Unicorn King, as is his wont, is attempting to “fix” his nightmare domestic agenda’s legacy via imperial decree.

By “decree,” I mean bat-shit insanity.

What the President of the United States proposed to stem the Democrat Party’s bleeding is utterly illegal. But flaunting the letter of the law is nothing new for the Unicorn King:

Let’s start with the basics. The president has no power to rewrite statutes — he is bereft of dictatorial power to legitimize what Congress has made a violation of law. This reflects our abiding conceit that we have “a government of laws and not of men,” ascribed by John Adams to the 17th-century political theorist James Harrington. As Justice Antonin Scalia recounts, Adams provided the best elaboration of this principle when he enshrined it in the 1780 Massachusetts Constitution (my italics):

The legislative department shall never exercise the executive and judicial powers, or either of them: The executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them: The judicial shall never exercise the legislative and executive powers, or either of them: to the end it may be a government of laws, and not of men.

Not only is a president barred from writing or rewriting laws; he is required to enforce them as Congress has written them. The only exception is when he has a good-faith reason to believe they are unconstitutional, a claim Obama can hardly make about Obamacare while crowing that the Supreme Court has upheld it. (Actually, the Supreme Court invalidated half of Obamacare — the state Medicaid mandate — and rejected Obama’s Commerce Clause argument on the individual mandate, upholding it, at least for the time being, on a tax theory that Obama had indignantly disclaimed. But as we’ve seen, this is not a president who lets facts slow him down.)

And, as Andy McCarthy goes on to explain:

As a practical matter, it is nearly inconceivable that insurance companies would be able to reissue the canceled health-care plans. The process, as Avik Roy expertly explains, is too extensive and complex to complete in the few weeks between now and Obamacare’s coverage deadline — something that an administration that can’t, after three years, get a functioning website running should know. But even if it could be done, the insurance companies would be insane to offer plans that failed to comply with the letter of the Obamacare statute. Similarly, the state insurance commissioners would be insane to permit them, and Americans would be insane to buy them. The policies would be legally unenforceable.

As the telecoms learned, Bush’s assurance that they’d be held harmless meant nothing once Obama and his base started urging warrantless wiretapping victims to sue. The companies spent untold millions in legal fees and costs. The health-insurance companies, too, would be deluged with lawsuits by insureds who claimed that the policies were illegal and wrongly denied coverage for this or that treatment. The insurance companies themselves would get into the act, filing suits to be compensated for payouts they’d made based on the illegal policies. The Obama “waiver” would avail them of nothing in a court, where a judge would be obliged to follow the law, not Dear Leader’s enforcement preferences.

I’ve already gone on the record saying the Stupid Party’s best bet is to make the Democrat Party own the whole damn thing, exactly as it is written. But it seems the ratings political atmosphere makes that option impossible. The Stupid Party has to be seen to be doing something to alleviate the O-Care pain. But passing legislation that has no chance of being signed into law is just silly.